


Past Behavior; Inadmissible

by goodisrelative



Category: Criminal Minds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-27
Updated: 2009-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodisrelative/pseuds/goodisrelative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Yes, she'd been ordered to do it – to break into his sealed files – but so had the soldiers on trial at Nuremburg and that defense sure hadn't worked well for them!</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past Behavior; Inadmissible

**Author's Note:**

> Again, the end of this ep left me feeling like Garcia and Morgan needed a scene at the end… so this is my attempt at it. Thanks to my awesome betas… [](http://pixie-on-acid.livejournal.com/profile)[**pixie_on_acid**](http://pixie-on-acid.livejournal.com/) and [](http://thekatebeyond.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://thekatebeyond.livejournal.com/)**thekatebeyond**. And thanks Pixie for the fixing of the setting so it works much better!

**Criminal Minds Fic: Past Behavior; Inadmissible**

DISCLAIMER: Criminal Minds and it's characters belong to CBS and it's creators. This is not for profit and I am recognizing no financial gain from this enterprise.

Title: Past Behavior; Inadmissible  
Author: [](http://goodisrelative.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://goodisrelative.livejournal.com/)**goodisrelative**  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: through Profiler, Profiled  
Pairing: none… Garcia-Morgan friendship  
Warning: None  
Summary: _Yes, she'd been ordered to do it – to break into his sealed files – but so had the soldiers on trial at Nuremburg and that defense sure hadn't worked well for them!_

Author's Note: Again, the end of this ep left me feeling like Garcia and Morgan needed a scene at the end… so this is my attempt at it. Thanks to my awesome betas… [](http://pixie-on-acid.livejournal.com/profile)[**pixie_on_acid**](http://pixie-on-acid.livejournal.com/) and [](http://thekatebeyond.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://thekatebeyond.livejournal.com/)**thekatebeyond**. And thanks Pixie for the fixing of the setting so it works much better!  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just borrowed them for some enjoyment. Really. Maybe one day I'll even give them back.

* * *

  
It was over and done. The bad guy caught. Good triumphed over evil. For once, the dead had spoken and been heard, with no more life taken. It should have felt good – it was the best outcome possible.

But Garcia didn't feel good about the outcome… because the ends didn't justify the means here. Not the means with which she helped procure the ends, anyway. She felt ashamed and afraid.

Derek Morgan was an intensely private person and she had betrayed that… and him. Okay, so the end had been for his own good: she'd helped keep him out of a prison cell, solved the murders of three boys, and in doing so had cleared his good name. But that didn't matter in her mind. All she could see _now_, was that she had invaded his privacy. It was time to face what she had done.

Yes, she'd been ordered to do it – to break into his sealed files – but so had the soldiers on trial at Nuremburg and that defense sure hadn't worked well for them!

Hiding out in her electronic sanctuary at the BAU was easy. They didn't have any active cases and the team was in flight, on their way back from Chicago, without Morgan. Taking advantage of the quiet, Garcia let her feelings pour through her in waves. The first wave of shame was quickly followed by fear. _What if he blamed her for everyone knowing?_ She, after all, was the only one with the ability to get the information so fast – it's not like he wouldn't know it was her.

Then came the greater fear: what if he left – transferred to a new team or something? How would she survive the BAU and the darkness that threatened her everyday, without him? She was dead positive she wouldn't.

_How could she look him in the eyes again?_ She was back to shame at her betrayal.

* * *

 

She thought briefly of meeting Morgan's plane a few days later, but she didn't. She stayed away, too unsure of his reaction and terrified their relationship was over.

She'd told herself a million times over those few days that she'd leave it all in his hands – no matter the outcome. She'd have to be satisfied with his decision. But that didn't stop her from doing one small thing. Garcia bought him, as a peace offering, his favorite ammo. She left two boxes of it on his desk over a note that simply read:

I'm sorry.  
-OoQ

She was careful to print it. Her scrawling penmanship was too easy to recognize and typing it was a dead give-a-way to her identity. She signed it as vaguely as possible – using the initials of her favorite salutation to him, 'Oracle of Quantico' – knowing he'd get the reference, but allowing him an out to claim ignorance.

* * *

 

"What the …" he frowned at the boxes of ammo on his desk. He saw the note only after he picked them up to put them in a desk drawer.

"OoQ… Garcia." He whispered her name, confused. _What was she sorry for?_ It didn't cross his mind that she might feel guilty for breaking into his sealed files. After all, what happened was no more her fault than a snow storm in July… in Florida.

He prowled the office for almost an hour before her simple note drove him to finally track her down. The words "I'm sorry" bounced around his head until he _needed_ to know for what.

He didn't have to search far to find her… she was in her inner sanctum, surrounded by her computers.

"Morgan. Derek. Agent Morgan." She couldn't decide what she should call him anymore.

Her uncertainty made him pause. She'd never called him Agent Morgan before. He didn't think it was a good thing that she did now.

He stared at her. She stared back. The staring match continued until someone walking by distracted them both.

Garcia shook her head and gestured him in. Neither wanted an audience for this talk.

It was only after he was leaning on the closed door that he finally spoke. "What's going on, Garcia?"

She avoided his eyes as she attempted to avoid his question. "You came in search of me."

"Hey! This is _me_, Garcia. Morgan. Sweet cheeks. You're starting to scare me here, darlin'." Morgan moved to kneel in front of her, a gentle touch forcing her to meet his eyes.

"I'm so sorry!"

"I got your note, darling. But I don't understand what you're sorry about." His voice was soft, like it got when he was talking to someone he wanted to step away from the ledge and not step over the side of a ten-story building. The woman in front of him was not the Penelope Garcia he knew and loved to banter with.

"That I betrayed you. That you'd blame me. I was the one who gave the team your files! I broke the seals, broke into your past. I didn't want to, but it was the only way. I had to keep you out of jail and clear your name." Her words came out in a rush, tangled with tears and her fear. "I need you here at the BAU to keep me sane with all of what we see!"

"Beautiful, you have nothing to be sorry for. You did what you had to. I know that. There is absolutely nothing for you to be ashamed at. You didn't betray me, Penelope." He wiped away her tears and smiled at her.

"But, I…" she started, not ready to believe him. It was too easy.

"No buts. No more feeling sorry for yourself." He stopped her words before she could voice them.

"You're sure?" For the first time, however tentatively, she met his eyes voluntarily.

"I will be, once I'm sure I've got my Oracle back to her normal self." He smiled more broadly, knowing he'd won the round.

She smiled for him. "Well, I can't argue with you, Handsome."

"That's the girl I remember." He smiled and stood.

"Derek." She was serious again for a minute. "I felt worse breaking into your files than when I had to tell Gideon about the Fisher King guy."

"Penelope Garcia, you are my best girl and don't you ever forget it again."

"If you say so."

"So."

Garcia laughed. "Well, then, sweet cheeks, it must be true."

"You owe me a beer next time we're out."

"Hey! I got you two cases of your ammo!"

"Two _cases_? All I saw were two boxes."

"And did you check the supply room?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Hotch would have a stroke if I left two cases of ammo on your desk!"

"Got me there. All right… looks like I owe you the beer!"

"I missed you, Morgan."

"Beautiful, I always miss you. Now, no more hiding out in here! I'll see you tomorrow." Morgan smiled at her and headed to the door.

Garcia smiled at his retreating back. All was right in the world again.

 

* * *

I got the title because I remembered [](http://raisintorte.livejournal.com/profile)[**raisintorte**](http://raisintorte.livejournal.com/)'s use of legal terms in some of her past fictions (especially Habit; Routine Practice)! (and Kate approved it.)


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